Following The Broken Estate, The Irresponsible Self, and How Fiction Works - books that established James Wood as the leading critic of his generation - The Fun Stuff confirms Wood’s preeminence, not only as a discerning judge but also as an appreciator of the contemporary novel. In 23 passionate, sparkling dispatches - which range over such crucial writers as Thomas Hardy, Leo Tolstoy, Edmund Wilson, and Mikhail Lermontov - Wood offers a panoramic look at the modern novel.

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How Fiction Works

Ranging widely from Homer to David Foster Wallace, from What Maisie Knew to Make Way for Ducklings, Wood takes the reader through the basic elements of the art, step by step. He sums up two decades of insight with wit and concision, resulting in nothing less than a philosophy of the novel, which has won critical acclaim nationwide, from the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times Book Review.

Pulphead: Essays

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To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction

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My Struggle, Book 4

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When the Facts Change: Essays, 1995-2010

In When the Facts Change, Tony Judt's widow and fellow historian Jennifer Homans has assembled an essential collection of the most important and influential pieces written in the last 15 years of Judt's life, the years in which he found his voice in the public sphere. Included are seminal essays on the full range of Judt's concerns, including Europe as an idea and in reality, before 1989 and thereafter; Israel, the Holocaust and the Jews; American hyperpower and the world after 9/11.

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Leaving the Atocha Station

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There Is Simply too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction

The year 2015 marks several literary milestones: the centennial of Saul Bellow's birth, the tenth anniversary of his death, and the publication of Zachary Leader's much anticipated biography. Bellow - a Nobel laureate, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and the only novelist to receive three National Book Awards - has long been regarded as one of America's most cherished authors. Here, Benjamin Taylor, editor of the acclaimed Saul Bellow: Letters, presents lesser-known aspects of the iconic writer.

A Man in Love: My Struggle, Book 2

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Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi: A Novel

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Why Homer Matters

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Literary Modernism: The Struggle for Modern History

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The Bookshop

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Van Gogh: A Power Seething: Icons

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Herzog

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Sputnik Sweetheart

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Another Great Day at Sea: Life Aboard the USS George H.W. Bush

As a child Geoff Dyer spent long hours making and blotchily painting model fighter planes. So the adult Dyer jumped at the chance of a residency aboard an aircraft carrier. Another Great Day at Sea chronicles Dyer’s experiences on the USS George H.W. Bush as he navigates the routines and protocols of “carrier-world,” from the elaborate choreography of the flight deck through miles of walkways and hatches to kitchens serving meals for a crew of 5,000 to the deafening complexity of catapult and arresting gear.

My Struggle, Book 1

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The Empathy Exams: Essays

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A Brief History of Seven Killings

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When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays

Ever since the 1981 publication of her stunning debut, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson has built a sterling reputation as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, not only as a major American novelist (her second novel, Gilead, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize) but also a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. In When I Was a Child I Read Books, Robinson returns to and expands upon the themes that have preoccupied her work with renewed vigor.

The Gate of Angels

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Publisher's Summary

A new, far-ranging collection of essays from "the strongest…literary critic we have." (New York Review of Books)

Following The Broken Estate, The Irresponsible Self, and How Fiction Works—books that established James Wood as the leading critic of his generation—The Fun Stuff confirms Wood's preeminence, not only as a discerning judge but also as an appreciator of the contemporary novel. In 25 passionate, sparkling dispatches—which range over such crucial writers as Thomas Hardy, Leo Tolstoy, Edmund Wilson, and Mikhail Lermontov—Wood offers a panoramic look at the modern novel. He effortlessly connects his encyclopedic, passionate understanding of the literary canon with an equally in-depth analysis of the most important authors writing today, including Cormac McCarthy, Lydia Davis, and Aleksandar Hemon.

Included in The Fun Stuff is the title essay on Keith Moon and the lost joys of drumming—which was a finalist for last year's National Magazine Awards—as well as Wood's essay on George Orwell, which Christopher Hitchens selected for The Best American Essays 2010. The Fun Stuff is indispensable listening for anyone who cares about contemporary literature.

James Wood is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a visiting lecturer in English and American literature at Harvard. He is the author of How Fiction Works, several essay collections, and the novel The Book against God.

What the Critics Say

"Proof that Wood is one of the best readers writing today. Devouring these pieces back to back feels like having a long conversation about books with your most erudite, articulate, and excitable friend." (Publishers Weekly)

"A pleasure…. Wood's very title reminds us what literature is really about: fun…. Get ready for some bracing delights." (Library Journal)

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